Purpose

To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net

Bike advocates confidently told me that most cyclists are aware of
their legal obligations while riding. But when I did a story about
California's new three-feet law last September, I took the opportunity to ask a bike expert about a couple of other rules.

Can I legally ride on the sidewalk? Is it OK for people to talk on a
cell while riding? I see some do that occasionally on Spring Street ...

I surprisingly got a few wrong. As someone who's biked to work for
about 15 years, I thought I would know better. (Answers: sort of. And
yes, which is crazy to me.)

But I'm not alone. Quizzing friends and KPCC colleagues about other
rules – bicyclists and non-bicyclists alike — no one walked away with a
perfect score.

It's a core piece of L.A.'s city infrastructure plan for the next 20 years, and CicLAVia is booming so much that it's branching out with events in the San Fernando Valley and Pasadena.

If more cyclists hit the streets, though, is everyone educated enough so the roads can be shared safely?

When bikes and cars collide

There are no official statistics on how well-informed people are.

Talk to most drivers, and they would say cyclists aren't well versed
in the rules of the road. (Then again, about half of prospective drivers
failed the DMV's written English test themselves.)

Diehard bike advocates – as you'd expect – disagree.

Yet more than 15,000 accidents statewide involved a bike in 2012,
according to the California Highway Patrol. About a third of those
collisions happened in L.A. County.

The blame for those accidents is about even on the national level, says the League of American Bicyclists.

But locally, the CHP data shows bicyclists tend to be more at fault.*

The number one reason why bicyclists cause accidents is because they're riding on the wrong side of the road.

Colin Bogart from the L.A. County Bike Coalition has a theory why that happens: It's the way people were once taught.

"A lot of people are very frightened about being hit from behind," he
says. "I think that's a big reason why a lot of people ride the wrong
way in traffic."

Meanwhile, the leading cause of accidents caused by drivers is when
they turn into the path of a cyclist. At an intersection, for example, a
driver might cut off a bicyclist while making a right without yielding –
the bike was supposed to have the right of way.

Teaching cyclists and drivers on the road

Before drivers take to the streets, they have to take a class, pass a test and earn a license. For bicyclists, none of that has to happen.

Driver's education doesn't extensively cover what motorists should do around bikes, either.
That's where local groups like the L.A. County Bike Coalition step in.

Every so often they'll collaborate with the LAPD for Operation Firefly,
a project where they'll hand out free lights to passing bicyclists: In
California you're legally required to have a front-facing light and a
rear reflector.

"It's less about, 'Hey, this is what you've got to do to avoid a
ticket,'" says Colin Bogart from the LACBC. "It's more about, 'This is
what you need to do to make yourself visible when you're riding at
night.'"

Police officers also take charge of educating motorists when they pull them over for infractions.